Abundance

One good thing about all this heat and drought we've been getting is this:

RIPE BLACKBERRIES!!!

Last week, all five of us trudged out to one of our favorite blackberry picking spots, where you get a sweeping view of the valley as you stuff your face pick blackberries dripping with sweetness and juice.  One hour later, fingers, tongue and clothes stained, we had picked over a dozen pounds of berries. 

I made cobbler with whipping cream that night, and froze the rest.  They are great in smoothies all winter long.  We better pick some more...

We've been eating well around here.  The garden is my best friend come 4pm, when I realize dinner time is coming up soon, and no fairies have offered to cook it for me.  Usually, I wander out to the garden to see what looks good and then whip something up with it.

Potatoes, carrots, onions, cauliflower and a round of my Caraway Gouda get transformed into cauliflower cheese soup.

Zucchinis, tomatoes, basil and grated Gouda cheese turn into this:

Dessert? My own home made raw cacao truffles, super food extraordinaire.

All this food creates a lot of nonsense at the dinner table.  My handsome husband Steve and good looking son Luke really, really like what I cook.  You can tell from their faces.

It's not just the garden that produces lots of food.  The goats are cranking out milk by the gallons.  Poor things are looking skinny.  I feed them groovy, organic, non-gmo grain, alfalfa hay and grass hay, but they have decided they don't like the hay any more.  So I fenced an area full of thimbleberry and salmonberry bushes, which my four-legged friends devour happily.

I make lots of cheese and yogurt every week.  Yep, here I go again.